Speaking from a Seattle hospital, Anton Tselykh, 38, confirmed investigators’ theory that an anchor, called a piton, that he and his companions were using Saturday evening to rappel down the Early Winters Spires in the North Cascade Range had ripped out of the rock.
Tselykh was in satisfactory condition Wednesday morning at Harborview Medical Center, meaning he was not in the intensive care unit, Susan Gregg, media relations director for UW Medicine, said in an email.
One climber was rappelling off the piton — a metal spike pounded into rock cracks or ice that climbers anchor their ropes to — and the three others were tied into it and waiting to descend, said Cristina Woodworth, who leads the sheriff’s search and rescue team and spoke with Tselykh by phone.
The inference from the article I posted is that the piton had been placed there by a climber some time ago. It was not placed by this crew.
That would be an implication. As Lisa Simpson once said, “You infer. I imply.”
But thank you. That would explain it. Don’t know that I would trust old equipment placed by somebody else long ago, but I understand that it’s a common practice.